Bull, bronc rider returns after horrific fall, injuries

Sunday

May 26, 2013 at 6:05 PM

McKennon Wimberly woke up in the hospital.

Two weeks earlier, he was competing in a Professional Bull Riding event in Anaheim, Calif., when his bull jerked down, hitting Wimberly in the head and knocking off his helmet. He was thrown and was hit by the bull again. He lay motionless in the arena. He spent the next two weeks in a coma.

Doctors initially said he would never walk or talk again, but they were wrong. Saturday, Wimberly was in Amarillo competing in the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Championship Ranch Bronc Riding at Will Rogers Range Riders Arena.

For Wimberly, the comeback story started right away in the hospital. He said even there, he never doubted his future.

"First thing I remember is I looked around in the hospital room," Wimberly said. "I moved around and thought, 'Shoot, nothing hurts.' I didn't know it was two weeks later."

The 24-year-old native of Cool, located between Mineral Wells and Weatherford, spent a month in the California hospital, with his immediate family there to support him.

"It was like a family vacation, except I don't think they enjoyed it very much," Wimberly said.

He walked again. He talked again - and after spending two weeks in a Dallas rehab facility, he went right back to ranch work. He was scheduled for a rigorous rehab routine but had other things in mind. He went to one session which involved walking across a flat floor, but Wimberly was far past that.

"I said, 'Well, at home I carry 50-pound feed sacks across uneven ground and feed cows and bulls,'" Wimberly said. "I said, 'I don't think I need to come back to rehab.' But I really do think riding a lot of horses and handling cattle is what got me through it so fast."

He was told to stay off bucking animals for at least 1½ years, but he rode on ranches and returned to competition exactly one year after the injury, against the will of friends and family. But for Wimberly, it was all he knew.

"As soon as I got out of the hospital I was on a horse," Wimberly said. "It never scared me. When I got back on my first bull, it was like I never left.

"It wasn't the smartest thing to be doing, but I was still doing it. I was having fun and I just didn't let anybody tell me I couldn't."

Over the course of his career, Wimberly said he has worked and competed everywhere from Hawaii to Brazil. He spent six years in the PBR and was one of the top 45 riders in the world, living what he called a rockstar lifestyle.

Now a year back into riding, it's ranch broncs that have captured his passions.

"I've always been a cowboy," Wimberly said. "Bull riding got far away from the cowboy deal, so I stepped back into the cowboy world and started getting on some ranch broncs and saddle broncs, and I'm having a blast doing it."

Whether it's bulls or broncs, Wimberly said he couldn't imagine not being able to ride.

"I've always liked the adrenaline - I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie," he said. "I don't do drugs, so I figured I might as well get on big, wild animals."

It's that competitive fire that led Wimberly to Amarillo.

"(The Championship Ranch Bronc Riding) is a big deal," Wimberly said. "I've heard about it for a couple years. Last year I wanted to come out, but I was up in Oregon so I didn't make it."

But no matter where Wimberly's career takes him, he already showed nothing can slow him down.

"The cowboy lifestyle doesn't allow you to feel sorry for yourself or think you can't do something," Wimberly said. "Every time they told me I wouldn't do something, it made me mad and I was only going to try harder."

Wimberly has been on countless bulls and horses, but his road to comeback proves life can be the wildest ride of them all.

"Heck," Wimberly said. "I got through it. I figured if I came back from that, I might as well have a little more fun."

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